The Arts Council has recently awarded full accreditation to Castleton Museum which is run by Castleton Historical Society. This fantastic outcome is the result of much hard work by a group of CHS trustees to ensure that the Museum meets the very high standards set by the Arts Council England. These national standards are set to ensure that accredited museums are well managed and offer the visitors the best experience possible. Congratulations to the Accreditation Team!

The Historical Landscape Trail between Castleton & Hope was one of the outcomes of the project to research the ‘Lives of the Medieval Common People of Castleton and Hope’ carried out by Castleton and Hope Historical societies in 2012. The self-guided trail leaflet enables visitors to discover the history of the landscape from the Middle Ages and later, through its route-ways, fields, lead mines and buildings. The audio clips which describe each point along the trail are now available on the CHS website along with the downloadable leaflet. Visit this link to access the leaflet, audio clips and full details of the trail and enjoy the walk.

De-turfing began at the New Hall site on 8th May to mark out a large trench about 9m x 9m

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Then quickly got down to the smaller 2016 trench

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During the next week some really nice features were excavated – the foundations of a wall running north-south and the remains of an adjoining external staircase, both of which had been visible on an old photo and paintings of New Hall.

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The last stages of the New Hall excavation at New Hall

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Colin’s drone photo gave a great bird’s eye view of the New Hall trench. The top of the photo is south here – it shows the south and east walls of one wing of the hall, most of the east wall having been robbed out. At the north-east corner you can see a section of internal wall. In many parts of the trench the excavation had come down onto a compacted floor.

A number of test pits were dug around the village, mostly but not only in fields. The first were in the Spring Field, by kind permission of Rita and Brian – a few finds were made, mostly clay pipe fragments and pottery, which appear to be fairly typical of finds on the fields around Castleton.

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A few test pits were dug in Seven Roods Field (with Gary’s permission) – it rained quite a lot at that point but it was really good practice for a large number of students. Finds were not abundant but again included pottery and clay pipe.

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Two test pits were dug at houses on How Lane by Pauline and Arthur, with a little help from another – in one of the test pits a large ceramic pipe was revealed. That was (sadly) the most exciting find.

About 20 members met up at Beauchief Abbey on Thursday 27th July for a historic and archaeological tour by Colin Merrony from Sheffield University. What had been a wet and gloomy day turned into a splendid evening with lovely light so we were really lucky! Colin steered us safely through the golfers (he’s obviously done this before) and explained the origins of the Abbey, founded for the Premonstratensians (White Canons) c. 1175. He showed us where by studying the landscape and old maps, and by digging a few targeted trenches, parts of the abbey precincts and gatehouse may have been. We followed what was probably a very ancient route towards Beauchief Hall then back to the church of Beauchief Abbey where we finished the tour. Colin gave us all some really helpful notes and diagrams to aid interpretation, but for those who would like more history about the abbey, the British History online account is very detailed (http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/derbs/vol2/pp63-69).